Microsoft will do everything in its power beat Apple. Not just in personal computing, the space in which the two have been rivals longest, but in every space that the Cupertino-based tech giant plays in. In an interview with tech news site CRN, Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer made it clear that the company would leave "no stone unturned" in its innovation battle against Apple. "We are trying to make absolutely clear we are not going to leave any space uncovered ...

Well known South African news portal IOL has not been hacked, says its editor Alastair Otter. People visiting the site were today greeted with a message from Google warning them that the site contains malware and that their "computer might catch a virus" if they continued on to the site. Speculation that the site may have been hacked was more than likely sparked by the second paragraph of the warning, which reads: Google has found malicious software may be installed ...

Google is set to pay a US$22.5-million fine for overriding the privacy settings on Safari and tracking the browsing habits of its users. According to the Wall Street Journal, the fine is the biggest ever slapped on a company by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Back in February the Journal reported that Google had “used special computer code that tricks Apple’s Safari Web-browsing software into letting them monitor many users”. This was in direct contravention of mechanisms built into the Apple ...

A consortium looking to bring TV to South African mobile phones has received a major investment boost. The National African Federated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NAFCOC), a black-owned independent and non-profit business support organisation, has bought a 20% stake in Mobile TV, which has been testing its product for the last 15 months. “This investment is likely to have a major impact on ownership, control and management demographics in South Africa,” says Dr Mothobi Mutloatse, founder and chairman of ...

China is cracking down on "inappropriate" online video content. A recent report from The People’s Daily states that two government agencies -- The State Internet Information Office and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television -- issued a statement informing online video providers like Sina and Youku, who just announced a deal with NBC, that they will be held liable for all content posted to their platform. According to the report, "the circular was issued upon requests from the public, ...

Motribe made a name for itself building mobile social networks, but the company's photo-based Mxit apps seem to really be taking off too. The South African-based company released MxPix, a little over a month ago. In that time the app, which makes Instagram-style photo sharing and filtering possible for people with feature phones has attracted over one-million users. The app reached the one-million user mark a full 14 days earlier than Motribe's other photo-sharing effort JudgeMe. To date, the million ...

Imagine, just for a second, that the internet didn't exist. You still got all your news from newspapers, spoke to your friends on the phone instead of via social media and IM, and consulted printed and bound encyclopaedias instead of Google every time you had a question. Did you just shudder at the thought? According to this infographic, if the internet really didn't exist, we'd all be spending a lot more money on media and postage stamps and quite a ...

It's official, a UK judge said so: the Galaxy Tab is not as "cool" as the iPad. In case you haven't been keeping up with Apple's endless legal battles, the company accused Samsung of infringing on its tablet design patents. But they seem to have lost the case (at least for now) -- Judge Colin Birss basically confirmed what anyone who has ever seen a Galaxy Tab and an iPad can attest to; the two don't look exactly alike. ...

Wow. Looks like Microsoft isn't about to shut its chequebook just because of one measly US$6.2-billion writedown. The Redmond-based tech giant today announced that it had bought interactive design company Perceptive Pixel (PPI). The acquisition, announced at Microsoft's Digital Worldwide Partner Conference, was made to help with the research and design of upcoming Microsoft hardware and software. PPI showed off what it could do at the event with an 82-inch mega-tablet. “The acquisition of PPI allows us to draw on ...

It's been a long time coming, but it looks like we finally have a date for a "finished" version of Windows 8. Manufacturers will be able to get their grubby little mitts on the latest version of Microsoft's OS in August, with a public release set for October. The dates were confirmed by Microsoft Corporate VP and CFO Tami Reller at the company's Worldwide Partner Conference keynote in Toronto, Canada. The October release date confirms what we've been expecting for ...